True colours

Tapiola in brief

The garden city of Tapiola is designed for the natural landscape and human dimensions in terms designed. Tapiola, aiming to unite the convenience of city life close to nature.

Tapiola is located in the heart of the metropolitan area close to freeways. It is bordered from West to Ring Road II and from the North to Turku motorway. Garden city Tapiola is part of Suur-Tapiola which consists of Westend, Haukilahti, Mankkaa, Laajalahti and Ruukinranta. Currently Tapiola has some 9,700 inhabitants, expected to grow to 15,000 by 2050.

Buildings and the environment will merge housing, leisure, work and services constitute a whole, where everything is close by. Courtyards and gardens continue to the forest environment, the natural state of the rock forests and open grassland parks. Walking and biking trails lead through the gardens, yards of the sea shores.

Tapiola is also known for its cultural offerings. Espoo Cultural Centre is the main venue for performing arts in Espoo. The Cultural Centre is the home of Tapiola Sinfonietta (the Espoo City Orchestra) and Espoo City Theatre, famed for its guest productions.

Weegee exhibition centre is an active centre of museums, art, exhibitions and events. It houses EMMA, Finland’s largest museum of modern art, Espoo City Museum, KAMU, Finnish Toy Museum, Finnish Museum of Horology, Helinä Rautavaara Museum, a café and a shop.

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Tapiola development

Tapiola will develop strongly in the near future. The goal is to preserve the historic values of the area to create a lively and comfortable city centre in the midst of greenness. Tapiola will have a high-quality public transportation terminal, functioning parking and maintenance services and cosy pedestrian areas and meeting places. More residential buildings for over 2,000 new inhabitants will be built in the centre with sustainable development principles.

Most important development projects

Tapiola metro station and bus terminal

The West metro line will strengthen Espoo’s ties with Helsinki. Some 20,000 passengers will pass through Tapiola metro station daily after it opens for public in autumn 2016.

The metro station is being built 30 metres below Merituulentie road. The main entrance is on the north side of the road. The metro station will be connected to the new bus terminal and to all of Tapiola’s services. The renewal of the bus terminal will be finished by 2018.

Redevelopment of AINOA Shopping Centre

Work is underway to regenerate Tapiola with a sympathetic approach to its traditional values. The goal is to create a vibrant and pleasant urban centre within this leafy neighbourhood. The new versatile and modern service cluster has been named AINOA.

Shopping centre AINOA’s first phase opened in October 2013. The second phase of the construction is ongoing and a new building will be completed in place of the old K-Market Aslak in spring 2017. With the second phase, AINOA’s total area will grow from the current 10,000 sqm to 30,000 sqm.

The third phase of construction will continue by the demolition of the current Stockmann department store building. 20,000 sqm of new commercial premises will be will be built in its place by the end of 2019.

Central car park

A central car park with 2100 parking spaces will be built under the shopping centre AINOA. The car park will be ready in March 2016. It serves not only the customers of the shopping centre, but also people travelling to and from the metro station.

Leimuniitty restoration

Tapiola's Leimuniitty represents modern gardening art and the park will be restored to its original condition. Subtle landscaping and modern details will make the park a cosy place to spend time. The restoration is to be completed in autumn 2016.

Tunnelling of Ring road I

A new innovative traffic solution has been developed between Tapiola and Otaniemi where Ring road I will be tunnelled and a new city boulevard will be built on top. A beautiful city environment is planned alongside the boulevard.